30 Energy plans for Europe, America, and the World

Figure 30.1 shows the power consumptions of lots of countries or regions,
versus their gross domestic products (GDPs). It is a widely held assumption
that human development and growth are good things, so when sketching
world plans for sustainable energy I am going to assume that all the
countries with low GDP per capita are going to progress rightwards in figure
30.1. And as their GDPs increase, it’s inevitable that their power consumptions
will increase too. It’s not clear what consumption we should
plan for, but I think that the average European level (125 kWh per day per
person) seems a reasonable assumption; alternatively, we could assume
that efficiency measures, like those envisaged in Cartoon Britain in Chapters
19–28, allow all countries to attain a European standard of living with
a lower power consumption. In the consumption plan on p204, Cartoon
Britain’s consumption fell to about 68 kWh/d/p. Bearing in mind that Cartoon
Britain doesn’t havemuch industrial activity, perhaps it would be sensible
to assume a slightly higher target, such as Hong Kong’s 80 kWh/d/p.

Figure 30.1. Power consumption per capita versus GDP per capita, in purchasing-power-parity US dollars. Data from UNDP Human Development Report, 2007. Squares show countries having “high human development;” circles, “medium” or “low.” Both variables are on logarithmic scales. Figure 18.4 shows the same data on normal scales.